Cloudheim feels like someone went up to the genre buffet and decided to try one of everything—only to discover the combination tastes delicious.

Having spent some time with it, Cloudheim is a (deep breath) combination of combo-based combat with crafting and a shop sim, playable both singleplayer and in co-op. You sell the loot you gather from your third-person expeditions to ever-growing numbers of customers in your constantly expanding store. Yes indeed, it’s another entry in the small-but-lovely group of combat-meets-capitalism games like Recettear and Moonlighter.

With so many elements to it, I wondered how the developers at Noodle Cat Games—led by CEO (and former Epic Games Systems Designer) David Hunt—would describe Cloudheim themselves. 

“This has definitely been a challenge!” said Hunt. “Sometimes we like to say, ‘This is the game we want to play with our friends.’ It isn’t trying to be one genre or one type of game—it’s supposed to be the game we wish existed, something new.”

Beyond this, says Hunt, it’s “extremely hard to answer without word-vomiting a ton of games, genres, and mechanics. We’ve pulled inspiration from action-RPGs, simulation games with the shop, fighting games, survival-crafting mechanics…the list goes on."

Hunt continues, "I think players will be most surprised by the amount of fighting game inspiration—usually that’s not a huge focus for games with crafting. Our moment-to-moment combat takes a lot of cues from classic games like Super Street Fighter II. It’s chaotic, it’s expressive, it doesn’t fit neatly in a box, and we love it.”

Speaking of an esoteric combination of ideas, what if I told you that this Super Street Fighter II-inspired action-crafting shopkeeper game was based on Norse mythology? That would be ridiculous, right? It’s not, of course—it’s based on an “alt-reality Norse mythology.”

“Norse mythology is rich with epic deeds, colorful characters and interesting settings,” says Hunt. “Cloudheim mines all this legendary content to build a world reminiscent of Norse mythology, but in no way is it beholden to the ‘real’ stories.” 

Set after Ragnarök, Cloudheim is very much about a society putting itself back together in the aftermath of a cataclysm. “This inspiration informs the architecture, character design, locations, quests, and music that players will experience. It primes us for sharing a story where players accomplish legendary feats and feel like the heroes of old Norse tales.”

Cloudheim’s shop is looking likely to be a lot more involved than Moonlighter. While the build I played was still pretty early for this element, it was clear that I was going to be able to lay out a sprawling network of market stalls across a large patch of land, along with various crafting machines and refining machines for creating both weapons and equipment—some for me to use, and many others to put up for sale.

“The shop is where player expression really shines and is all about them getting to decide what their island looks like," says Hunt. "The shop is about reconnecting the world and all of these cultures and people who were scattered after Ragnarok, and the kinds of customers you attract change based on your reputation across different islands. The shoppers from Arcadia will tend to want different items than the customers from Dustlanger, and they look visually different too!”

If you’re worried this is going to become a second career, however, Noodle Cat wants to assure you that you don’t need to spend too long setting up shop. 

“We’ve intentionally designed for flexibility between singleplayer and multiplayer,” Hunt explains. “It’s very fire and forget—you can throw stuff into the stations and walk away if you want. It’s designed to be player-friendly, the idea being that if you craft something with an item, you’re always going to get something really awesome.” For those who want to get far more involved, min-maxing remains an option. It’s the grind itself that Noodle Cat most wanted to do away with.

As wildly different as Cloudheim might be in many respects, the third-person combat genre is a very busy space right now. I wanted to know what Noodle Cat thought made their game stand out from the crowds.

First and foremost, Cloudheim is all about physics-driven damage. “Most of your damage comes from how you hit things, not just if you hit them,” the developers explain. “For example, dropping a big enemy on a small enemy devastates the small one, but doesn’t really hurt the big one. You’ll deal a lot more damage from the physics interactions in the game versus the initial throw or kick of an enemy.” This means that when you deliver knock-back to an enemy and it crashes into the crowd behind it, you’re dealing damage to those affected too!

There's also the aforementioned fighting games influence. Cloudheim will feature so-called “cancel systems,” where you can interrupt your current attack animation’s recovery frames to transition to another attack, building more powerful combos. Cloudheim also eschews traditional skill cooldowns. Instead it has “Mana Burn,” where skills can still be used while in cooldown, but add to a burn meter. When that bar’s full, you’re in trouble, but you’re not fussing about a bunch of different meters during combat. 

“For example, you can go from weapon combo 1 to weapon combo 2, and then go back to the sword combo and keep chaining together," Hunt explains. "You’re never locked out of an action because of a timer or a long combo, which lets the player react really fast in combat.”

Another aspect that really made Cloudheim stand out to me was its colorful nature. It's bright and cheerful, which in context is a very bold direction. “Our Chief Art Officer [Adam Ford, who also worked on Fortnite’s art] has always been a huge fan of bold, expressive color, especially pinks and teals,” explains Hunt. “He’s been a big advocate of blue skies and greenery, embedded since working with Apple. He had a talk with Steve Jobs a long time ago at Apple, where Jobs said that if you want something to have mass appeal, you go with blue skies.”

From Pixar to Miyazaki, Hunt says the art direction has drawn from all around the world, and that it also speaks to the game’s action and narrative. “Like Samwise said, ‘You want a world worth fighting for.’”

Before a game has reached the wider public’s hands, it’s always interesting to find out which aspects its creators are most excited about. I asked some members of the team to explain what they personally find special about Cloudheim that they can’t wait for people to discover.

"The biggest thing is the sheer variety of ways people play. Cloudheim is a game about experimenting and discovering different ways to play. There is a rich tapestry of ways to approach the same situation that is very different from player to player," says Hunt. 

"We’ve seen players who never swing a weapon and instead use only physics-based combos to move enemies and create chaos. Others build out highly-refined loadouts. Some change their entire playstyle every few minutes," Hunt continues. "It’s a game that keeps evolving as you unlock weapons and accessories and skills, so you’ll never feel like you are stuck with the best loadout and can’t change to use new items."

Adam Ford, Chief Art Officer, adds "I hope players can see the amount of passion we’ve put into this game. Cloudheim is charming, dangerous, fun, and humorous. I’ve always been a fan of more immersive worlds where people can create their own stories. I hope people have fun and enjoy the characters—we tried to insert as much personality and humor into every corner that we could."

But it's Designer Kim Steiner who chimes in with the most important bit: "I want players to realize how special Jelly Cows are!"

And you can! Cloudheim is available to wishlist now on the Epic Games Store, and a beta runs from July 18 – 21, 2025.